Client devices—such as computers, smartphones, and the like—often support connections over more than one network to endpoints. For example, a smartphone may support communication through the public switched telephone network (PSTN) and communication through the Internet, among others. Situations may arise when it becomes desirable to link an end point client device, via a one network (e.g., the PSTN), and to establish a reciprocal active communications session with the endpoint client device back through another network (e.g., the Internet).
Conventional contact centers, which are examples of a point-of-contact (POC) for a customer seeking assistance for a product or service, generally rely on traditional communication systems connected by the PSTN to interact with customers. Interaction between customers seeking assistance and customer support agents is often limited to communications over standard telephone connections. Thus, customers without access to a telephone connection or desiring multimedia interaction are not accommodated.
More recently, multimedia contact centers that support both systems connected by the PSTN and systems connected by a network of computers, such as the Internet, have been proposed. A customer support agent at a multimedia contact center is generally provided with equipment that supports both telephone-based and computer network-based communications. For example, an agent's workspace may be provided with a telephone connected to a private branch exchange (PBX) that receives customer support requests via the PSTN, and a computer connected to a server that receives customer support requests via the Internet. In this example, the agent can provide support over either the telephone or the computer. However, since an agent is generally only able to provide support to one customer at a time, a problem arises when the agent receives simultaneous customer support requests over both telephone and computer. In this example, the agent cannot provide support to both customers, leaving one customer unsatisfied.
Consequently, there is a need for a system and method that supports blended PSTN and computer network, e.g., Internet, customer support interactions while alleviating agent workflow complications. Moreover, there is a need for a system and method that supports blended PSTN and computer network customer support interactions with intelligent routing of customer support requests to available agents.